In some important respects, the Ohio Bobcat women’s basketball team isn’t the same squad that dominated the Mid-American Conference last year and made the NCAA tournament. This team is younger than last year’s edition and is currently going through growing pains that last year’s team missed. Even at 8-3 heading into conference play, Ohio isn’t quite at its best yet.
Take last week’s 64-61 win over East Carolina, for instance. In a game in which Ohio struggled to hold onto a fourth-quarter lead, the Bobcats almost blew it late in the fourth when redshirt freshman Kelly Karlis threw the ball away on an in-bound pass.